This invention consists of a new and distinctive day-neutral strawberry cultivar designated SAKUMA. It originated as a seedling from a cross made in 1978 between the non-ever-bearing cultivar Tufts (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,561) and the day-neutral cultivar Tribute (formerly E.B.60), which is a non-patented plant originated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Beltsville, Md. from the cross E.B. 18 (MdUS 3082.times.Cal. 65.65.-601, day-neutral).times.MdUS 4258.
Sakuma bore its fruit at Sakuma Bros. Farm, Inc., Burlington, Wash., was selected there and assigned selection No. SS484. Under this number it was tested and retested. In this environment it has been found superior in important fruit and plant characteristics as compared with Quinault which is the everbearing cultivar grown most widely in the Pacific Northwest. In less extensive comparisons it has been rated more highly than Ft. Laramie or Ozark Beauty or any of the more recently introduced everbearers including Aptos, Brighton, Hecker, Fern, Selva, Tillicum, Tribute and Tristar. All testing has been done under the assigned selection number.
Plants of Sakuma have been propagated asexually by use of runner plants separated from the original seedling plant and by multiplication of those runners plants. Typical runner plants were virus-indexed by standard methods and those that indexed virus-free were heat-treated to inactivate any remaining heat-labile virus and subsequently increased by meristem culture. Resulting plants were further increased by screenhouse propagation as required for certification by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.